All finance and politics all the time. Except as otherwise set forth herein on occasion once in a while. Quote of the period is by a singer-songwriter named Jim Reilly: don't ask me for answers, I'm making it all up as I go.

Monday, October 23, 2006

On Perplexion - Part 1

So "perplexion" is the state of being perplexed. And that resembles precisely my condition upon learning that a particular belief I have -- that Jim Rogers is a keenly intelligent man who is extremely wise about many matters political, economic, and historical -- is not universally accepted.

To me, Jim's erudition literally leaps off the pages of his books Investment Biker and Adventure Capitalist. To me, the correctness of his analysis on a large number of topics is abundantly apparent. But, I learned in a conversation in which I participated some time ago, there are people who think he "is a dangerous idiot." And who, on further inquiry, disclose that they think he is absolutely, steadfastly wrong on generally all topics on which he ventures an opinion.

The question this leaves me with is, of course, how can an experienced, intelligent person get that one so remarkably wrong?

One answer is of course that maybe I'm the one who is wrong. Of course I don't think so! So instead I choose to believe that this person has gotten this question (whether Jim Rogers is a wise man or an idiot) wrong because this person simply doesn't like Jim's ideas. This person thinks Jim is a "dangerous idiot" because he disagrees with Jim's ideas. Of course that's a big part, I suppose, of why I think Jim is right. Because I agree with him.

But that's not entirely true either, I don't think. I like Jim's ideas and I agree with Jim's ideas because I think what he has to say makes sense. I think what he has to say is logical and more likely to be correct than the explanations for world events proferred by neocons (or, if you prefer, the current administration in the White House).